The 10 registered voters in the small village of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire wait to cast the first election day ballots of the U.S. presidential election moments after midnight. Photograph: Herb Swanson/Reuters

In a quirk of US election precedent, two precincts have already reported results: Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, whose residents vote immediately after midnight; and Hart's Location, New Hampshire, which boasts 33 voters.

The precinct captain announced: "This has never happened before in Dixville, we have a tie, five votes each."

Now there's an omen for America. Except that Dixville has two registered Democrats, three registered Republicans, and five registered independents. So Obama won indies 60% to 40%.

The second oddball early voting location is tiny Hart's Location in New Hampshire – and it went for Barack Obama. Obama won 23 votes, Romney got 9 and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson received one vote.

Hart's Location began the early bird voting tradition in 1948. Most residents of the White Mountain village then were railroad workers who had to be on the job during normal polling hours. By 1964 the townspeople had grown weary of the media attention and the late hours and did away with the practice. They revived it in 1996.